Comparing the Reaction of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover to the Great Depression
The year was 1929. America goes through the biggest national crisis since the American Civil War. They called it the Great Depression. The Stock Market was going down, unemployment was going up, and money was becoming scarce. The United States had to look up to the one person who could lead the country out of this national catastrophe, The President. At this time the man who had that title was none other than Herbert Hoover. Hoover, A republican, hoped that this was all a nightmare, he hoped that the Depression was a small fluke that would fix itself after a short period of time. After seeing that the Depression was getting worse had to
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Also Hoover would not, under any circumstances, allow America to be in debt. He thought that taping into the national debt would prolong the depression even make it worse since the government would have to pay interest on the loans. Hoover was a man set on his ways and helped very little with the Depression.
In Roosevelt’s inaugural address he declared war on the Depression and asks for an expansion on his powers. When Roosevelt took over the office he summoned Congress to work out his recovery plan. This is a period called the First Hundred Days and contained a program called the First new Deal. Roosevelt started by putting poorly managed banks under control of the Treasury Department and set standards required for someone to start up a bank. This helped people to trust the banking system and caused people to put money into the banking system. Roosevelt also created the FDIC, which guaranteed bank deposits. Roosevelt later started many agencies known as the “alphabet agencies”. Some of which are the AAA, NIRA, PWA, CCC, TVA, SEC. All of the agencies were created to provide government jobs or help out the situation of the low prices of farm product. Roosevelt believed in the idea of experimentation. He thought that the government should always be doing something, and if an idea doesn’t work than it should be replaced with something else. Roosevelt was able to get the American people on his side by informing them what
Herbert Hoover was elected president of the United States on November 19, 1928; unfortunately, less than eight months later, the stock market crashed. Hoover mistakenly considered this crash as only a passing point for America. But it was only three years later when economic slowdown and over speculation brought America into an upcoming Great Depression. This was a devastating blow for Hoover, his administration, and the American people. President Hoover attempted many ways to fix the economy. He founded new government agencies and encouraged cooperation between government and business to try to stabilize prices as well as attempt to balance the budget. These relief attempts might have shown positive outcome in the early years of the depression, but as the economy worsened, calls for more government involvement increased.
Herbert Hoover had a belief that self-reliance and hard work in industry is what makes America great, unfortunately for Herbert Hoover, this is exactly what got America into the Depression. When Hoover enacted Hawley-Smoot Tariff, he basically isolated the U.S. because no country wanted to pay the high tariff rate. Since America was left alone to suffer, Hoover decided that it would benefit the people if he enacted laws like the Federal Home Loan Bank Act. This act was meant to lower mortgage rates and help farmers refinance their farms, but since the depression was already in full swing, it was again too little too late. Herbert Hoover at one point fully believed that if the depression was virtually left alone, it would fix itself because of the boom and bust economy. This also didn't work, because without government help, the people didn't know what to do with themselves and were left to suffer the depression by themselves. Hoover's attitude was changing from optimistic to desperate because nothing that he tried seemed to work. It seems as though Hoover was afraid of what he had done to America when a group of World War I veterans, known as the Bonus Army, came marching in Washington looking for the bonuses they were promised. The bonus wasn't due until the 1940's, but with the uncertainty of the economy, they wanted to get what they could, while
President Herbert Hoover was the president in office during the Great Depression. Herbert Hoover did not recognize the stock market crash as severe as it was. During the tragedy President Herbert Hoover made many unsuccessful attempts to fix the economy. President Hoover’s response to the Great Depression was insufficient in the ways that he took little to no government action. President Hoover loaned money to corporations and state businesses, at the same he advised corporations to not cut wages or lower the production rate, considering that it was highly necessary. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had a plan set that would throw Hoover out of office and to fix the economy, which Hoover had limited
One of the most severe worldwide economic downturns in history is known as the great depression. Numerous amount of issues and problems were taken place between the years of 1929-1939. The great depression brought a rapid rise in unemployment, bank failure, and much more. Despite the wide range of issues, Franklin D Roosevelt was actually concerned about the depression. Roosevelt's response to the great depression was very effective because he had launched the new deal, due to the uprising problems and issues of the great depression.
In the 1920s, Americans were trying to figure out what was everyone’s role in society. During this time women started to take on bigger jobs then housekeeping and African Americans are finally standing up for their race. Once 1929 hit, Herbert Hoover, America’s newest president, was viewed as an ‘American Superhero’ at that time because of everything he promised society; however, America gets hit by the Great Depression leaving society in a hole. While banking systems were unstable and overproduction were leaving people bankrupt, Herbert Hoover was blaming Europe and was failing to keep society financially stable. As his presidency went on, filmmakers made film cycles and gangster pictures like Little Caesar that portrayed America’s corrupt society during the Great Depression. By the end of his campaign, Hoover was known as the worst American ever which led to the rising of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. Roosevelt saw the struggling society as an opportunity to help his campaign in which he created the New Deal. America was given an opportunity that allowed them to look forward to the future. During Herbert Hoover’s presidency, America did not support the federal government, but after Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for president and promised a New Deal, they began to look more favorably on the government.
In the year of 1929 the stock market crashed and hurt many of the people in America as it continued through the rest of the 1930s and into the early 1940s. This left America in a whirlpool of poverty and despair. When the stock market crashed it led to The Great Depression. It led to being where one out of every four workers became unemployed no matter if they were skilled or not. People became homeless and were struggling to survive. They had to make new homes out of cardboard or whatever they could find, these were called “hoovervilles.” Most people didn’t have enough money to buy food to feed themselves or even their families. President Herbert Hoover did not seem to be going out of his way to help the country in any way. He was against most forms of government relief and he believed that the depression would come to an end on its own. Americans were very tired and frustrated with Hoover’s ways and so they elected a new president. They elected Franklin D. Roosevelt who
After the stock market crash, known as Black Tuesday, in 1929, people panicked. As too much money was withdrawn from banks and they closed, people lost all their money. America, which was just in the “Roaring Twenties”, fell into the Great Depression. Suddenly, people were laid off their jobs, couldn’t buy things they had once not thought twice about, and struggled to afford food for their families. People lost their homes, and teenagers lived on the streets. Farmers were in debt, losing their farms, and had to deal with the Dust Bowl. The president at the time, Herbert Hoover, decided that the country would pull out of the Depression on their own. Since the citizens of America didn’t like that, on Election Day of 1933, Hoover wasn’t re-elected.
Compare and contrast Hoover and Roosevelt’s actions in the aftermath of the Crash of 1929. How did both administrations attempt to deal with the economic stagnation, social hardship and psychological impact of the depression? What needed to be fixed and which approach proved more successful? In your essay you should address not only the underlying economic and social problems that both administrations had to deal with and the various corrective measures they adopted, but also the underlying philosophical approaches of Hoover and Roosevelt and their supporters.
President Hoover, a determined republican, who faced the impossible task of the Great Depression. The late 1920’s economy was full of superficial prosperity and credit, and an unleveled playing field to most Americans. This causes the fortified nation to unravel at the seams. Speculators were buying on margin and selling at an artificial price. These speculators set up the stock market to plummet. Hoover dwelled his success on his rugged individualism that did not believe in direct federal aid to the people. Hoover should be blames for the worsening of the Great Depression not because he started it, but rather, because he was not able to fix it. Despite having the power of the government behind him, Hoover was unable to launch public
President Herbert Hoover had an interesting approach to the great depression. President Herbert Hoover believed in the idea of charity or self-help. Basically this means that when people came to the white house asking for help since they were in a bad situation from the great depression President Herbert Hoover should not give them that help. President Herbert Hoover believed that if he gave handouts to people or helped people when they were down, he thought people would get dependent on the government to help them when things were going bad then having this mind set would lead to people just not doing anything and just keep getting money from the government for the rest of their lives. President Herbert Hoover believed in charities, instead of the government helping, people need to help one another out, so charities were strongly supported by President Herbert Hoover. Even though President Herbert Hoover believed in self-help and charities he did use the government to help out certain areas of work such as agriculture since lots of farmers at the time were dealing with a
The country was going through an ongoing rough depression that the previous President Hoover left in the road for his processor, President Roosevelt. Although not only President Hoover decisions and approval of laws added to the great depression, but the
The Great Depression drastically changed America's definition of Liberalism. Prior to the onset of the depression, in the roaring twenties, policies of laissez-faire were considered liberal, radical, revolutionary, and even democratic. This was due to the fact that revolution was a horrifying notion and not until after the laissez-faire and the system of free market fails in the 1920's do people begin to look about for alternatives. The time when people starting to seek alternatives was at the onset of the depression when America's political views drastically change. As the Great Depression, started in 1929, America began to view conservatives as following the policies of social Darwinism, laissez-faire, and having
Herbert Hoover was one of the greatest humanitarians of the 20th Century. Throughout WWI he was hailed as an uncommon man liked by many. Hoover became the Secretary of Commerce 1921-1928 and the 31st President of the US. However, he was hated for not having a big enough role in the Great Depression and he was blamed for the increasing the poverty of Americans even though the pieces had already been set. While Hoover did do some things wrong in his time he always had the right meaning and his good intentions weren’t understood. Hoover did the best he could and did more than any other president before him to end the Depression.
President Herbert Hoover inherited the economic problems of the nation. He unfortunately was forced to shoulder the burden and carry on the presidential legacy of continuous conflict
During Herbert Hoover’s administration any mistakes were made after the Stock Market crash. After the crash during the depression Hoover took action but made a few mistakes along the way. Many of Hoover’s acts were passed by congress and signed by Hoover himself. His worst offense was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, which raised tariffs. The raising of tariffs was the worst possible thing that could have occurred. Hoover tried his best to reassure the country that the economy would become improved, although it actually worsened. To improve things after the crash Hoover prepared all Federal Departments to speed up public works. He did this with hopes to generate supplementary jobs and bring back the economy. As well, Hoover asked congress if they would reduce spending, and use what was no longer required to restart public works. Unfortunately for Hoover a collapse in Europe and a change in foreign trade caused prices for United States manufactured goods and farm equipment. After this occurrence President Hoover asked congress once again for more money, his time he wanted the money for farm loans and to establish the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which would be used to help buildings in need as well as banks and railroads. With all of Hoovers efforts by July 1932 the Depression began